Sri Lankan News Updates with Discussions

PRESIDENT WILL NOT ALLOW THE RETURN OF STATE TERROR – SAJITH

President Maithripala Sirisena, who risked his own life to save the country from despotism, will never betray the people’s mandate and allow the return of state terror and dictatorship, Housing and Construction Minister Sajith Premadasa said.

The Minister, at a ceremony to open newly constructed ‘Madeena Nagar’ in Anuradhapura yesterday, made the above observation with reference to speculation that the President together with the Joint Opposition (JO) was discussing to form a “caretaker government”.

He noted that the return of the JO to power would only mean the dawn of a “Hitler era” where dictatorship and state terror rules.

“The President, knowing the bitter truth that he would be ‘six feet under’ if he lost the January 8, 2015 polls, bravely came forward to end the destructive rule of the previous regime. He put his country before his party and left the SLFP in which he was the General Secretary. He was well aware of the terror, suppression and cruelty of the rule that prevailed.

He had seen the price former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka and former Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake had to pay for going against the then administration.

Yet he accepted the challenge to be the Common Candidate on behalf of the country when nobody else dared to. He restored democracy and social justice by toppling the then Government with the people’s franchise. We have a tendency to forget that past,” Minister Premadasa recalled.

“I am convinced that the President is well aware of the ambitions of the JO and that he would not sell the hard-won people’s mandate for a cheap price. While we are ever grateful to the President for the sacrifice he made, we also see that those who were defeated in the elections are conspiring to come back to power through a ‘caretaker government’. The JO members’ greed for power is for their own selfish reasons of maintaining their opulent lifestyles and special privileges. This defeated group is having meeting after meeting to form a ‘caretaker government’, but I am confident that the President will not betray his mandate at any cost,” Minister Premadasa remarked.

The Minister however warned the public to understand the political theatrics and the duplicity of some UPFA MPs who struggle for their political survival.